Posted on: May 6, 2008 - 1:05 pm
Nasik , May 6, 2008 11:04 am
Up at 4 am, ready to leave for location which is an hour away.
Its the film ‘Shoebite’ - a working title and still trying to find a suitable name. Directed by a young adfilm maker, Shoojit Sarkar with whom I had done several ads.,. some of prominence being the Cadbury, Miss Palanpur and the Times of India, India Rising campaign.
The terrain in the interior is harsh. Dry parched mountains and plains, strong winds and soaring temperatures. Add to that the discomfort of glue on my face to stick my beard and wig and I am ready to scream. I swear never to work in a film where a beard is to be stuck on and I succumb each time, ready to swear again. You cannot talk, you cannot eat and each time you utter dialogues, retakes have to be done because either the beard or the mustache has come off. Fresh glue is applied, greater discomfort and even greater determination to avoid such films. But..
When the camera rolls, every care and concern in the world takes a back seat and you simply glow in the thrill of the moment !
Somewhere in the distance I can hear the dull sound of artillery fire. Its probably coming from Deolali - an army camp near by. A training course must be in progress at the firing range.
And my thoughts go back many many years to when I was about 10 or 11.
Rami Mamu, my Mother’s ‘dharam ka bhai’ a major in the Army, posted in Deolali, invites us to come and spend our summer holidays with him. He was a good hockey player and we would go in the evenings to the playing grounds to see his artistry with the stick. Rami Mamu’s Mother, Biji we called her, a warm affectionate elder, had adopted my Mother in the days when she was studying in Lahore, as a daughter, my Mother loosing hers almost at birth, and all along till this day we have kept that relation.
Mamu had taken us to the range to see how these big guns operated and as a youngster we were so overawed by the sound and the fury of them.
I think it was the monsoon period, for it rained incessantly. I had never seen such volume of rain ever. And it continued for days without stopping. An elderly domestic in the house made a little doll with little sticks and put it out in the open, like a mini scarecrow. She said the rain gods will see her getting wet, have pity and it would stop raining. We were all so excited to see if it would actually work. And it did. Obviously not because of the doll, but for us at that age, we were so impressed with elder domestic !
Its been 40 monsoons in Mumbai now - pretty close to Deolali, and how much we look forward to the rains and the joy it brings. Every year our area in Juhu gets flooded and an annual exercise of removing the ground floor furniture to the first floor is conducted, to salvage it from the water that enters the house. It has almost become an enjoyable little episode. Wading through waist deep water, getting the supplies in stock, shutting off the electricity, bringing out the candles and no TV ! Just a bunch of us sitting and chatting, a pastime long forgotten.
Except.. that horrible day, when the entire city submerged ! And the tragedy and the misery it brought to the hundreds with lesser means and facilities. I had sat up all night in the dark, knee deep in water, watching the levels rise unabated and hoping for the rain to stop.
Would that little doll put out in Deolali by the elder domestic, have worked ?
A few days back the media sent me a questionaire on the conditions in Juhu with regard to flooding and the steps being taken by the authorities, to improve them. They need to widen a ‘naalah’ that flows through the scheme and in doing so have bulldozed the several shanty huts of those that live and work around the area. The displaced are being rehabilitated miles away from Juhu now. It will be impossible for them to function. Some are domestics working in Juhu; some in my house too. I have put them up in my premises after their homes got destroyed.
But the work on the ‘naalah’, the reason for uprooting the shanty homes, has still not begun.
Reason.
A corporate office, on the bank of the ‘naalah’, so the media informs me, has allegedly prevented demolition of its premises, due to it’s alleged political connections !!
I respond to the media query as far as my own condition is concerned and no further. I cannot do or say more. I have no answer.
But maybe the media should seek one !
Rami Mamu and Biji have passed away, as has my Mother. Shooting for another film ‘Khakhee’ in Deolali a couple of years ago, I drove through the Army Camp, desperately trying to locate signs of where we stayed during the ‘doll-in-the-rain’ moment and the playing field. Nothing was found, except that firing range.
Strange, how the dull sound of that artillery fire brought back so much !
These words on the post today, shall probably remain in the world of optic fibre for a while, but they shall also remain in another medium. In the medium of my film - ‘Shoebite’ !
The scene shot a short while ago, was of my character sitting by the side of a lonely road, writing a letter to my wife. And as the camera rolled and I pretended to act out the moment, the dull thunder of artillery fire in the background , I actually started writing out my post as above. Nothing deliberate. Just happened.
So when you see the film and come across this moment, ‘remember’, as the media often says, ‘this is where you read about it first’ !!
My love for you and more -
Amitabh Bachchan
July 9th, 2008 at 7:22 am
http://kfwrhpq.greatnow.com/index5.html Page 5 http://kfwrhpq.greatnow.com/index6.html Page 6 http://kfwrhpq.greatnow.com/index7.html Page 7 http://kfwrhpq.greatnow.com/index8.html Page 8 http://kfwrhpq.greatnow.com/index9.html Page 9 http://kfwrhpq.greatnow.com/index10.html Page 10 http://kbftwmr.greatnow.com/index.html Page 1 http://kbftwmr.greatnow.com/index2.html Page 2 http://kbftwmr.greatnow.com/index3.html Page 3 http://kbftwmr.greatnow.com/index4.html Page 4
Report Abuse